George RR Martin has informed fans impatient for his new Game of Thrones novel The Winds of Winter that he is “still months away” from completing it – but offered hope that they might be reading it next year.

In response to some “truly weird” recent reports about the long-awaited sixth novel in the epic A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy series, Martin wrote on his blogthat “I don’t know which story is more absurd – the one that says the book is finished and I’ve been sitting on it for some nefarious reason, or the one that says I have no pages”.

This weekend’s blogpost was his most substantial progress report in months, and suggested it was still possible The Winds of Winter could be published in 2018.

“Whether Winds or the first volume of Fire and Blood will be the first to hit the bookstores is hard to say at this juncture, but I do think you will have a Westeros book from me in 2018 … and who knows, maybe two. A boy can dream,” he added.